


We Built These Paper Mountains (Then Sat and Watched Them Burn)

by citizenjess (givehimonemore)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Between Thor (2011) and Avengers (2012), Canon Compliant, M/M, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thor: The Dark World, brothers in arms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:24:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14698884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/givehimonemore/pseuds/citizenjess
Summary: Subtitle: Five times Thor failed to keep Loki safe, and one time Loki succeeded in saving his brother.





	We Built These Paper Mountains (Then Sat and Watched Them Burn)

**Author's Note:**

> Just trying to get a few more remnants of Infinity War angst out of my system, I think. Title comes from "Walk" by Foo Fighters, which plays at the end of the first Thor movie.

1.

The weeks, nay, months following Loki's self-imposed exile by way of loosing himself from his brother’s pleading grip and tumbling into space are miserable for Thor. There are, of course, the myriad details of the God of Mischief’s newly-uncovered deception to contend with. The sheer depths of Loki's scheming, his proven interactions with the Frost Giants even prior to Thor's botched Coronation Day ceremony and the revelation regarding his own heritage, are disheartening, to say the least. 

Still, as much as he wants to, he cannot truly fuse the recent misdeeds of Loki with the man he will never not consider his brother. There are those within Asgardian territory who would attempt to make him feel better by proffering rants and sour words about Loki, but they have the opposite effect, and the speaker nearly always ends up scampering away before the look on Thor's face turns truly murderous. Then, alone again, he will inevitably wonder, each and every time, what more he could have done to ensure that Loki knew he was well and truly loved, that he took a piece of Thor's soul with him the day he fell from grace, and that Thor would gladly give up the rest of it to have him back.

2.

Learning that his brother is, in fact, alive, fills Thor with incredible, conflicting emotions. In time, he will come to learn that this is the price he must pay for loving Loki.

The reports of his brother's havoc-wreaking on Midgard are as difficult to hear as they are unsurprising; as much as Thor is loathe to admit it, Loki has proven to be capable of terrible things. And yet, there's something quite distinct from simply meting out justice that runs through Thor's veins when he tugs Loki from the Avengers' ship by the back of the neck, like a mother dog trying to get a handle on her wayward pup, and flies them both down to Earth proper. 

The first thing he notices is the sallowness of Loki's skin. Some of it, Thor has to assume, is from the lack of nutrients or sunshine after floating for several months in the vacuum of space, but there is also a dark energy surrounding him, feeding off of him, that makes Thor wish to simultaneously cuff Loki and kiss him. His brother is sick; his brother is being controlled, manipulated, by some higher force, and even as Thor continues to lose his own grip, literally and otherwise, on Loki again and again during this mission, he remains steadfast that he will someday shatter the hold this foreign enemy has on his brother, so that he can bring Loki home again, where he belongs.

3.

a)

“You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you.” 

It’s a lie, of course. Thor is as poor and dull a liar as Loki is a champion. He can only hope their shared grief over Frigga’s death, grief Thor has cruelly denied his brother from expressing, is enough to make the threat seem genuine. Even now, he wrestles with the urge to comfort, to soothe Loki’s bedraggled appearance and spirit, fearing he has well and truly failed their mother if he cannot.

b) 

“She wouldn’t want us to fight.”

“Well, she wouldn’t exactly be shocked.”

The familiarity between them hurts. It sparks Thor’s ever-foolish (and ever-present) notion that Loki, the real Loki, his Loki, can be brought forth again, unearthed, dusted off, and embraced as though he was the galaxy’s most precious jewel. Poor, dull liar.

c) 

“I didn’t do it for him.”

He has failed. His senses tunnel; he knows Jane stands fairly close-by, ready and willing to offer comfort, even if she cannot possibly begin to understand all that he has lost today, but he denies it to himself. He is a liar, and a fool, and he deserves this.

4.

Loki returns to Asgard, returns to him, and Thor laughs breathlessly, even as he hears Hela mutter, “That little shit,” and punctuates it by stabbing him from behind with one of her many skewers. Their first interaction since Sakaar is casual, but it is only the stakes of the battle that keeps him from stopping and embracing Loki right on the rainbow bridge.

Then, of course, Hela is striding towards them anew, yet recovered from Thor hitting her with “the biggest lightning blast in the history of lightning,” and despite Loki’s joking about being tossed at her as a distraction while their people are herded to safety, Thor panics at the notion that Hela could well snuff Loki out with very little provocation, should he get too near. And though expecting him to reinvigorate an ages-old demon and flee from the Asgardian palace before said demon has time to decimate it is not exactly the definition of ‘safe,’ Thor cannot help but feel relief when Loki scampers off, even if his actions will inevitably bring about the destruction of their shared childhood home. So long as it doesn’t take Loki with it, Thor knows that he can survive its loss.

5\. 

The size of the encroaching ship is intimidating on its own. Thor is startled, however, to see just how much Loki pales upon its arrival; and then he realizes: Loki recognizes it. “How-” Thor begins, but Loki turns his face away before he can search for clues.

“He said he would find me again; hunt me down. No time like the present, I suppose.” Loki laughs bitterly, but Thor’s heart plunges into his stomach at the clarification. He turns and grips Loki’s upper arms, fear sliding towards reignited fury that he’s only just gotten Loki back, and Thanos is here to take him away all over again. “Brother, what-” Loki begins, but Thor just shakes his head quickly.

“We have to hide you.”

Loki’s eyes are alight with an abnormal amount of emotion for those who do not know him the way Thor does. “He’ll ransack the entire ship to find me, brother.” He says it in a coaxing manner, as if working to acquiesce Thor to the idea that, at last, the God of Mischief has no more tricks up his sleeves.

Thor, however, remains steadfast in his resolve. “We will get you off the ship, then, and as many others as we can.”

“And you?” Loki wishes he could cover his ears so as to avoid hearing Thor’s answer.

Thor’s grip falls away. He resists the urge to put it back or to cling, and manages simply to pat Loki on the cheek. “I will hold him off for as long as I can.”

6.

It’s a valiant effort, at least. Still, Thor is but one near-immortal being, and Thanos has been planning for this precise situation for eons. At least half of the ship’s occupants are decimated by his hand before he lays eyes on Loki proper. 

“It is time to hold up your end of our bargain, little trickster god,” he says, and Loki is fairly certain he is hearing Thanos but in his mind. This, once again, does not surprise him; even without the scythe on which Loki once wielded the Tesseract in his foolhardy attempt to rule Midgard, his connection to the power granted to him - for a terrible price, of course, but even now, he still cannot say that he wouldn’t have taken the offer if he had to do it over again - still lurks, and beckons. It is how he survived the Kursed’s attack on Svartalfar, though this is not something he has shared with Thor, or anyone, yet. 

(“What I could do with the power that flows through those veins.”

“It would consume you.”)

The Black Order surrounds him, wrests him from where he, too, has managed to temporarily redirect their attackers’ attention away from Asgard’s ever-dwindling population of survivors, yet hurrying to escape. They are none too gentle; he is soon on his knees before Thanos, face pressed into the dirt by a sharp heel, and rises to cruel snickers.

He wants to believe he has an unwavering poker face. Unfortunately, Thanos, already holding the upper hand, calls his bluff. Loki is not sure which is worse: Thor’s tortured screams, or his muffled, pained silence, but both sounds are now embedded in his soul for eternity. It is, however, a mere pittance to pay for the guarantee that his brother will be safe. He would do so infinitely, over and over again, if that was the requirement for his brother’s survival. It has taken him several consecutive mortal lifetimes to recognize what has now become but a plain-faced truth, that as long as Thor lives, he and Asgard and the galaxy at large can thrive, and nothing - the promise of power, Thor’s own pleading sobs, even death - will take that knowledge from him.

The Tesseract’s effervescent glow is not diminished by circumstance. It is notable, however, that the portal which opens to send him (the Hulk) to Earth glitters with the same hope he manages to mouth to Thor before Thanos' hand closes over (not) his throat and silences him once and for all (or doesn’t).


End file.
